SQUARE FEET; Flower District Working on a Move

By PATRICK O'GILFOIL HEALY

Published: October 12, 2005

The delivery vans and 18-wheelers start rumbling through Manhattan's flower district around 2 o'clock each morning, delivering bushels and bushels of roses, irises and lilies to a blocklong gallery of shops and distributors on West 28th Street. But how long the trucks will keep going to the area is anyone's guess.

After several failed attempts to pry itself from its cramped home in north Chelsea, the Flower Market Association of NYC has revived its efforts to relocate the district, home to about 35 merchants. The association has hired a broker to scout sites around Manhattan and an investment banker to help finance the move.

They have scouted vacant lots, parking lots, new developments and old manufacturing districts throughout Manhattan. The Flower Market has now winnowed its choices to about four sites on the East and West Sides, uptown and downtown, which it will not disclose. It has not bid on any properties or set deadlines for moving, said Deborah Jackson, the investment banker working on the deal.

''We're a little down in the dumps, but hopefully we'll be able to finance a deal,'' said Gary W. Page, president of the Flower Market Association. ''We know we have to move, and we've been trying to get out of this location for quite a few years.''

Merchants want to leave their roost between Seventh Avenue and the Avenue of the Americas because of the congestion, the soaring rents and the parking problems that irritate buyers and the police. But the root of their woes, merchants said, is the years of rezoning that flooded an old commercial warren with new residential towers and loft conversions.

One Wednesday before dawn, delivery trucks rolled in from Florida, New Jersey and Kennedy Airport to unload pallet after pallet of plastic-wrapped flowers and waxy green plants, grown in Florida and Central America. The truckers, wholesalers, florists and decorators had to share the sidewalk with dog walkers, people out for the morning paper and the occasional exerciser.

Cars and vans parked along the street bore the scourge of the area -- orange parking tickets stuffed under the windshield wipers.

The century-old flower district does about $110 million in business each year, 70 percent of it wholesale and 30 percent retail, said Cordelia Persen, the executive director of the association. It used to stretch between 26th and 28th Streets, but has wilted steadily over the years and now occupies just a single city block.

About a third of the businesses own their buildings. The others who rent have paid increases totaling 30 percent during the last five years, Ms. Jackson said.

''We definitely need parking, that's the most important thing,'' said Joey Lorenzo, the general manager at the New Concepts flower wholesaler. ''I see the market getting smaller and smaller, and more businesses leaving.''

But where can the flower district go to avoid the congestion and residential creep?

Years ago, merchants considered moving to the Bronx Terminal Market or College Point, Queens, where rents were cheap and condominium dwellers did not tread. No more. The Flower Market now says that it wants to construct a single property of about 150,000 square feet and that it must be in Manhattan, although streets are narrow, prices are high and parking is scarce at best.

Merchants said they would upset a geographic balance if they moved outside Manhattan. If they relocated to New Jersey, the Long Island buyers would have farther to travel. Move to Westchester County, and the New Jersey buyers might stop coming. And a move across the Hudson or East Rivers would irk the customers who drive a few miles down Seventh Avenue or take the subway to the flower district each morning.

If they find a site, the businesses of the Flower Market Association would probably form a corporation to buy and develop a parcel of land in an area zoned for manufacturing. The corporation could sublease portions of the space to smaller wholesalers and plant stores or sell lots as commercial condominiums.

Robert Ballard, a vice president at Cushman & Wakefield who is brokering the search, said he had cast a wide net. He listed 52 sites, from the Battery to Inwood, and began the winnowing.

But with land in most of Manhattan starting at $150 a square foot, the price of the property would be a minimum of $22.5 million. Mr. Ballard estimated that land would account for a third of the total cost and construction would account for the rest.

The Fulton Fish Market seemed a possibility, but the city had other plans for the land. The same with property near Gansevoort Street, which is to become the Chelsea outpost of the Dia Art Foundation. The flower merchants thought about space under an East River bridge, but security concerns killed the notion.

Instead of new construction, how about a lease in the grand old post office next to Madison Square Garden? ''Fear of price,'' Mr. Ballard said.

The new tower at Park Avenue and 125th Street? ''The floor sizes are too small.''

The northern tip of Manhattan, at Ninth Avenue and 207th Street? ''It's just too far up for us.''

Merchants and the Flower Market Association say they have no idea when they might bid on a property or relocate. ''Every minute,'' Ms. Persen said, ''there's more of a need to move.''

Photos: Florists from near and far, like Alex Otis, above, of Port Washington, N.Y., and Katherine Jacob of Westport, Conn., shop in Manhattan's flower district. (Photographs by Frances Roberts for The New York Times)